Allegory of the Indivisibility of the Batavian Republic – Hendrik Roosing, 1795

“Ondeelbaarheid” [Indivisibility] Copper engraving made in 1795 by Hendrik Roosing after a design by August Christian Hauck, after a drawing by Cornelis Bakker; published in Rotterdam by Johannes Groenewoud Jansz. Coloured by a later hand. Size (plate mark): 33.7 × 39 cm.

The composition gives visual form to the revolutionary ideal of the indivisibility of the Batavian Republic, a principle that became central to the political thinking of the new state after 1795. At the centre of the image stands a pedestal bearing an open book, a sealed document, and a sword. Together these attributes refer to law, state authority, and the defence of the republican order.

Flanking the pedestal are the personifications of Liberty and Prosperity. Liberty is identifiable by the liberty cap and the pike; Prosperity carries the cornucopia. Together they hold a laurel wreath incorporating a palm branch and an olive branch—classical symbols of victory, steadfastness, and peace. Above the wreath hovers a heart, representing the moral and political unity of the republic.

This unity is threatened by negative forces. On the left appears Deceit, on the right Envy, while Slander strikes from above. They seek to disrupt the harmony, but are attacked by three winged putti, who embody the protective forces of reason, truth, and civic virtue.

In the foreground lie the personifications of the Amstel and the IJ, two river gods who encircle the heart of the Republic and together enclose another heart—reiterating the motif of indivisibility and cohesion. On the left in the background stand Justice and Steadfastness, while on the right a group of armed patriots is shown, a concrete embodiment of the people prepared to defend the new order.

High in the sky the composition is crowned by an elevated religious symbol: the Holy Trinity, rendered as an equilateral triangle within a radiant nimbus, with the All-Seeing Eye of God at its centre. This Enlightenment symbol confers moral legitimacy upon the Batavian state and suggests that republican unity is founded not only politically, but also morally and universally.

Literature: Frederik Muller “Nederlandsche historieplaten” (1863-1882), no. 5377-a2

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